Jim Taylor's Columns - 'Soft Edges' and 'Sharp Edges'

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3

May

2022

The night Huey, Dewey, and Louie died

Author: Jim Taylor

Thursday April 21, 2022

 

I remember the night like yesterday. Our daughter Sharon called from Edmonton. “It’s over,” she said, and started sobbing.

            Sharon was in her mid-thirties at the time.  “Finally, one of the in-vitro fertilizations worked in a petri dish. Three cell blobs were implanted and my body registered the appropriate hormonal response. I was pregnant after almost a year of trying.”

            She named the three “blobs” – properly, blastocysts – Huey, Dewey, and Louis. Because A, B, and C, or 1, 2, 3 sounded too generic.

            Because of her age, hers was considered a “high-risk” pregnancy. She had ultrasound tests almost weekly. 

            And then one week, there were only two blobs left. 

            And about a week later, the ultrasound showed no blobs at all. 

            That’s when Sharon called to say, “It’s over.”


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3

May

2022

Random thoughts on an Easter morning

Author: Jim Taylor

Thursday April 21, 2022

 

My alarm went off at 5:30 Easter morning. Through my window, on the far side of the lake, a full moon was slipping behind the mountains. 

            I heard a thump. A bird had flown into my window. Quail aren’t noted for intelligence – but even they know it’s easier to find sunflower seeds at my feeder than to scrabble around in the undergrowth looking for leftovers from last fall. 

            A quail, a nerf-ball of feathers, lay motionless on my deck. Broken its neck when it hit the glass, I assumed. 

            But I had an Easter sunrise service to attend. So I left it for later. 


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3

May

2022

Easter isn’t about eggs and bunnies

Author: Jim Taylor

Sunday April 17, 2022

 

The sun has not yet risen.  It’s Sunday morning. A small group of Jewish women straggle along a path towards a cliffside cemetery outside the city walls. Gravel crunches under their sandals. Their breath makes little clouds in the chilly morning air. 


 ***************

The sun has not yet risen.  It’s Sunday morning. A small group of Ukrainian women creep from the underground bunker where they have been imprisoned for the last few days. Even underground, they could feel the earth tremble aa bombs showered on the city above them. 

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Categories: Sharp Edges

Tags: Easter, Ukraine, women

3

May

2022

Warning: may contain disturbing images

Author: Jim Taylor

Thursday April 14, 2022

 

These days, every newscast about the war in Ukraine includes a warning about “disturbing images.”

            Victims lying in the streets, hands tied behind their backs, a bullet hole in their heads. Bodies, wrapped in plastic, laid out like speed bumps. Trenches with the dead stacked like sardines. 

            Tomorrow’s “Good Friday” church services should carry a similar warning: “This service may contain disturbing images.”


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14

Apr

2022

How does a 'sinless' church admit doing wrong?

Author: Jim Taylor

Sunday April 10, 2022

 

The world changed last Friday. Pope Francis asked Canada’s indigenous peoples to forgive his church. 

            Indigenous leaders have kept the residential school issue before the public. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission headed by Justice Murray Sinclair heard more than 6,500 testimonies from survivors. Ground-seeking radar identified close to a thousand bodies buried in unmarked graves on lands around those schools. Court cases documented physical and sexual abuse.

            So we were kept well informed about the need for an apology.

            But we have not heard how – or if – theological understandings have been changing in the Vatican.

            And that, to my mind, is the overlooked news from the papal apology.


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